Guided Primary Source Analysis: Illustrating America

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Illustrating America

Zoom into the selected section of the primary source shown above. Look closely at the details and answer the questions below. What do you see? What is happening in this scene? How do you feel when you look at this scene? What do you wonder about? Now look at the complete primary source and answer the questions below….

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Microcosm

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Microcosm

The image above is small part of an illustration. Look carefully and make a hypothesis about the topic or theme of the larger illustration. Point to specific details that led you to this hypothesis. Next, zoom into a larger section of the same illustration. What additional details do you see? Refine or rewrite your hypothesis about the topic or…

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Jeff Davis Reaping the Harvest

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Jeff Davis Reaping the Harvest

What is the mood of this image? What symbols and other details in the engraving contribute to the overall mood it evokes? Now review the bibliographic record for this image. Describe what you learned and explain how that affects your “reading” of this source. Do a bit of research to learn more about the person…

Guided Primary Source Analysis: When Women are Jurors

Guided Primary Source Analysis: When Women are Jurors

Zoom into a more detailed image of this illustration. Study carefully the expressions–both facial and body–of each woman in this illustration. Use one adjective and one verb to describe each woman based on your analysis of their expressions. The full title of this illustration is “Studies in expression. When women are jurors.” This 1902 illustration…

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Poor Richard Illustrated – Lessons for the Young and Old

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Poor Richard Illustrated – Lessons for the Young and Old

Benjamin Franklin was a man of many talents and one of the key figures in the founding of the United States. Franklin was also a printer and a writer. One of his most well known publications was an almanac, or yearly handbook, published under the pseudonym (a made-up name) of Richard Saunders. The source above, Poor…

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Little Rory Borealis

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Little Rory Borealis

Look carefully at this map of the Arctic (online or .pdf document). Which countries could Rory live in if he lived above the Arctic Circle? Which of the animals in the picture would you NOT see in the Arctic Circle? Rory’s mother named him after the Aurora Borealis, also called the Northern Lights, which you…

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Woman and Child

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Woman and Child

Describe how this illustration makes you feel. What details in the drawing contribute to this feeling? Write a description of this scene or write a poem to accompany the illustration. Now read the poem that this drawing illustrated. Describe how this poem compares with what you wrote. What other observations, reflections or questions does this source…

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Great Moon Hoax

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Great Moon Hoax

Read the summary of the Lunar Narrative from the Museum of Hoaxes. What details from the articles do you see evidence of in this illustration? Why do you think the illustrator created an inset, or a picture within a picture? Access this .pdf to see the image in more detail. Compare and contrast the information about…

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Signing the Declaration of Their Independence

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Signing the Declaration of Their Independence

Compare and contrast the illustration above with this well-known print. What similarities do you notice? What differences do you see? This illustration is actually a political cartoon. What do you think the purpose of the creator might have been? Now read the source record as well as the source record for the comparison print. Do you think…

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Automatic Asteroid Finder

Guided Primary Source Analysis: Automatic Asteroid Finder

Use details from the illustration to describe what is happening in this image. Do you think there was an automatic asteroid finder in 1873? Do scientists use automatic asteroid finders today? How do you know or how would you find out? Read the article by Ruth S. Freitag linked to below. What did you learn? In what…